X-MEN FAN-FICTION: NEW FRIENDS, OLD ENEMIES
by Chrispinater
Summary: The X-Men discover a new Mutant in New Zealand. His name is Isaac, and he has the ability to control and become shadows. After joining the X-Men, he gets the codename Shadow Puppet. Magneto convinces him to help make everyone into a mutant. Until Apocalypse shows up, with his own plans of world domination.


**X-Men Fan-Fiction: New Friends, Old Enemies**

**Starring Isaac Kingi as Shadow Puppet.**

By Chrispinater.

Isaac Kingi stood alone on a concrete footpath, part way up a hill, overlooking the fields at Kohuroa Park. It was around midday on a sunny Friday afternoon. So no one else was around at the time. His original intention was to take a walk; however, he stopped for a moment and decided to practice using his shadow manipulation abilities. For you see Isaac was no ordinary nineteen year old, he knew he was different than other people, and not just because he was a half cast, as he would soon find out. He began to practice with his powers by creating a pack of shadow wolves, which ran through the fields as if they were on the hunt. Suddenly one of the wolves broke from the pack, stood at the edge of a shadow cliff and howled at a shadow moon. "AuAuAuAUUUUUUUU!" Even the onomatopoeia for the sounds of the wolf howling extended out from the wolf's mouth and stretched across the field, before dissolving back into the light.

Isaac was half Maori, half Pakeha; he stood about six feet and two inches tall. His jet black hair was cut very short and close to his head. He had brown eyes, and light brown skin. He usually wore baggy faded blue jeans, black and purple AND1 basket ball shoes, a t-shirt and a zip up hoodie. He was also starting to grow a goatee.

Isaac then made a school of shadow fish that swam around on the field in various random patterns. Soon a large, shadow fishing net materialised, to collect up the fish. At the same time the shadow of the X-Jet just happened to have flown over the field and was amongst the school of shadow fish as the net began to close around everything. "If only fishing was this easy in real life," Isaac began to say as he gathered the net in catching not only the fish but the X-Jet as well. This causes the X-Jet itself to stop dead in the sky for a moment as its shadow gets caught in the net. This shocks Isaac, causing him to get a migraine and "Aaaahhhh!" cry out in agony. His shadow puppets dissolve instantly and the X-Jet flew on as normal again.

After recovering from the initial shock from the incident, Isaac runs home, thinking to himself, "Damn what was that just now? I think I felt someone else's presence just now too."

The X-Men including, Professor X, Wolverine, Jean Grey and Cyclops are aboard the X-Jet. They are returning to the Charles Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, after a failed mission to Antarctica, where the X-Men had been looking for the second piece of a meteorite that crashed to Earth and which contained some form of alien technology inside it. However when they got there they found out that Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants had gotten to it first and had already left the scene, when the X-Men arrived.

"Damn it! We were too late," Said Cyclops, as he pounded his fist onto the console in front of him.

"I could smell Sabertooth's stench all over the damn place," Said Wolverine, in a huff of anger.

"If Sabertooth was there..." Cyclops began.

"Then Magneto has one of the meteorites bub," Wolverine interrupted.

"Well whatever the case may be, we still have the other one and we know that what's inside the meteorite is important. We also know we need both of the pieces to fully understand what they're for," Said Professor X, when suddenly the X-Jet came to a complete stop, for a split second. It throws the occupants forward, setting off alarms and causing Wolverine to hit his head, on the head rest of the chair in front of his before it continued on its regular flight path.

"Argh! Son of a $%#!" Barked Wolverine, rubbing his head where it was hit by the chair.

"What the hell happened!?" Asked Cyclops,

"I'm not entirely sure, but I felt another mutant for that split second we stopped..." replied Jean Grey.

"Then we find 'em and teach 'em a lesson," Said Wolverine, as he balled his hands into fists and unleashed his adamantium claws.

"No, Logan, we only want to find them to talk to them, I don't think they were attacking us," Said Professor X

"We'll just see what happens when we find 'em bub," Replied Wolverine.

Isaac is running down the road, He has just left the driveway of Kohuroa Park which can still be seen in the distance where small fence posts dot the border of the field where Isaac had previously been practising with his shadow powers. As he rounds the corner a car drives past travelling in the opposite direction. "Damn what the heck was that just now? I felt someone's presence just now too," Isaac thought as he ran home from the park, still in shock at what just happened. Isaac decided to stay in his room for a while, at least until he could figure things out.

The next day Professor Charles Xavier, Wolverine/Logan and Jean Grey arrived at Isaac's house after, they had discovered that what happened to their X-Jet was caused by Isaac somehow. They had used Professor X's psychic abilities, along with a mobile cerebro, a machine that helps enhance Professor X's mutant abilities, which is kept onboard the X-Jet. As they walked up the driveway to the house where Isaac lived, you could see their car parked on the road next to the drive. Logan walked behind Professor X, pushing his wheel chair and Jean Grey walked alongside the professor.

"So the guy who attacked us is in there huh?" Wolverine asked.

"Easy Logan, we don't know exactly what happened yesterday," Replied Professor X.

"Someone stopped the X-Jet cold, and you're tellin' me it weren't no attack!?" complained Wolverine.

"We're here to find out what happened yesterday not to cause trouble," Replied Jean Grey.

"Besides I felt the presence of a scared youngster when it happened," Professor X explained, as Jean Grey rang the door bell.

Isaac's mother answered the door, standing at the doorway; she wondered who these people were.

"Hello?" She asked as if she was answering the phone.

"Hello ma'am, we're from the Charles Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, M..." Jean Grey started to explain before Isaac's mum interrupted her and asked.

"Never heard of you... You're Americans?" "I thought Isaac wanted to go to AUT" She thought to herself.

"Yes we are. May we come in?" Jean Grey asked.

"Sure, ISAAC! You have visitors!" Isaac's mother called out turning her head away to yell down the corridor.

"COMING!" Yelled Isaac from his bed room, wondering who was at the door.

As Isaac came through to the dining room Jean Grey and Professor X took seats at the table, Professor X was in his wheelchair still, which was pulled up to the table. When Isaac took his seat at the table Wolverine stood behind him folded his arms across his chest and leaned back against the wall.

"Isaac, we're from the Charles Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. I'm Charles Xavier, this is Jean Grey and that's Logan. We'd like to ask you a few questions," Explained Professor X.

"You guys are American... What does your university want with a kid from New Zealand, especially since I've never even heard of it...?" Asked Isaac.

"The kid's sharp, I'll give him that," Thought Wolverine.

"Until yesterday we were unaware of you and your abilities too..." Professor X continued,

"So this is about that," Thought Isaac, "Yesterday... What happened?" He asked.

"That's what we're here ta talk to ya about 'bub," Exclaimed Wolverine.

The conversation went back and forth as everyone started to learn more about what happened to them and how each of them was involved in the incident that occurred the day before.

"What I mean is what happened to you yesterday?" Isaac asked.

"We were attacked. What's it to ya bub?!"Wolverine said angrily trying to intimidate Isaac.

"I didn't attack anybody. I'm just trying to establish the situation and how you think I'm involved," Explained Isaac in a slightly worried tone of voice.

"This kids a damn smart aleck lawyer," Wolverine thought to himself.

"Logan, take it easy. We were flying back to the States when our plane suddenly stopped dead in its tracks. We believe you had something to do with it," Professor X explained.

"They must have powers like I do or something. Otherwise how would they know who to look for?" Thought Isaac, as Jean Grey read his thoughts. "Yesterday I was in the park just messing around... with my powers then suddenly I ... felt a migraine and came home... It was only for an instant but it felt as if someone was in my head," Explained Isaac to the others. "Probably one of these guys, so that must be how they found out about me," He thought without knowing Jean Grey was reading his mind.

"That's right we do have powers like you," Said Jean Grey in reply to Isaac's thoughts. "This is how we knew another mutant had something to do with what happened. As you've probably guessed I have the power to read minds, the Professor and I also sensed you when our plane stopped, which is how we found you," She said as she continued to explain their situation to Isaac.

"I'm a mutant? Oh great being half-caste is bad enough ... Wait... Get outta' my head!" Isaac thought.

"Ok, I'm sorry," Jean Grey apologised.

"It's alright. Just stay outta' there from now on," Isaac said with a slight hint of anger in his tone.

As things started to become clear to everyone about what happened Professor X decided that he would offer Isaac a place at his Institution. "Well Isaac, now that we've established what happened yesterday, we'd like to offer you a place at the institute," He offered

"Why?" Isaac asked.

"The Charles Xavier Institute is a place where people with special abilities like us can learn to better understand how such abilities work and how to better control those abilities," Professor X explained to Isaac more about what the Charles Xavier Institute was about.

"So, there are more... Uhh mutants... like me there?" Isaac asked nervously.

"Yes there are, some of them even teach things like science, philosophy and mathematics. You'd be more than welcome to join us. If you'd like some time to think it over here's my card," Said Professor X as he offered Isaac his business card.

"This all sounds too good to be true, what's the catch? How much does it cost?" Isaac continued to question the Professor about his institution.

"Rest assured Isaac there's no catch and all fees will be paid by the Xavier foundation. However there are certain things you'll have to pay for yourself, that you'll find out about should you decide to join us," Professor X said finishing his explanation.

Isaac was convinced that it would be best to go with the Professor and his friends, he was also curious about what it would be like meeting other mutants as he was the only one he knew of that had any kind of powers or abilities. "I'll be honest, I'm keen as to find out if you're for real or you're just full of shit, so if you'll give me a day to say goodbye to my family and get my stuff together I'm fully keen to go with you guys," He told Professor X and the others.

"Excellent, we'll be back tomorrow to pick you up, let's say 8pm?" Professor X said in an excited tone.

"Sure man sounds good," Replied Isaac.

The next day Isaac woke up and started to pack his bags so that he would be ready when the X-Men came to pick him up. He felt excited about going to America and learning more about the other mutants and about his own mutant abilities. He was also curious about whether or not Professor X was telling him the truth. "They'll either show up or they're full of shit," Thought Isaac as he packed clothes into his bag. "Even if they show they still could be full of shit... But this is the only way to find out..." He thought as he packed up the last of his things into a suitcase and closed it up.

Later that night at around 8pm a couple members of the X-Men arrived to pick up Isaac, the X-Men that showed up were Scott Summers/Cyclops and Jean Grey/Phoenix. Isaac was standing in the driveway outside his house with his parents, whom he hugged goodbye before he went off on his new adventure with the X-Men. "Give us a call when you get there ok," His mother asked, with a tear in her eye as she hugged her son goodbye.

"Take care of yourself over there ok," Said his father, as he also hugged his son goodbye.

"I will, and I'll let you know when I get there ok. Bye mum, see ya dad," Isaac said as, as he hugged his parents goodbye.

Then a red mustang with silver 'go fast stripes' painted on it pulled up and parked on the side of the road next to the drive way. Isaac headed towards the car which was being driven by Cyclops. As he approached, Jean Grey got out of the passenger side to greet Isaac.

After hugging his parents good bye Isaac put his bags into the cars boot. This had been opened by Phoenix, who had gotten out of the car and opened the boot for Isaac. As Isaac put his bags into the boot she went around and opened the rear passenger door, so that he could get into the car. "We're glad you decided to come with us, and don't worry you're going to love it there. Also if you get homesick you can always visit your family or have them visit you once you get settled in," Jean Grey said as, she welcomed Isaac to the group and ushered him into the car.

"They seem nice enough" thought Isaac as he climbed into the car. "Sounds great. Thanks for opportunity; I'm fully keen to see what you guys are all about," He said as he buckled his seat belt.

"Ready to go?" Asked Cyclops, as Phoenix went around to the front passenger seat and got into the car.

"Yeah man, let's go," replied Isaac as he waved out the window to his parents.

Cyclops started the car and when everyone was ready he drove away from Isaac's house. Isaac looked back the whole way until his house disappeared from view. Then Isaac turned around and noticed the ruby aviator sunglasses Cyclops was wearing, as he looked at him through the rear view mirror. "Nice Shades bro, don't believe I met the driver when yous were here yesterday," He said, as it was the first time Isaac had actually met Cyclops.

"Thanks and you didn't the name's Scott," Cyclops replied, as he also looked at Isaac through the rear view mirror.

"'Sup Scott, I'm Isaac. Nice to meet ya bro," Replied Isaac, who was in a much better mood than he was yesterday.

"Nice to meet you too," Said Cyclops, as he turned his focus back to the road in front of him.

"You didn't seem so happy to meet us yesterday," said Phoenix, as she turned her head to look at him over her shoulder.

"Yesterday you fullas just rolled up outta nowhere saying I attacked you," Isaac retorted, shifting his gaze from the rear view mirror to meet her eyes.

"Fair point," She said in response as they drove towards their destination.

After a while they arrived at the location where the X-Men had hidden the X-Jet. After everything was loaded into the cargo hold on board the X-Jet, Isaac and the other X-Men that were there; Cyclops, Professor X, Wolverine and Phoenix all boarded the X-Jet and returned home to the Charles Xavier Institute for Higher Learning where Cyclops landed the plane inside the hidden underground air hanger. Then they all exited the X-Jet and were greeted by Beast/Hank McCoy. As they descended the exit ramp Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner teleported into the hanger creating a puff of red smoke that smelled of sulphur around him and making a 'BAMF' noise. They were all in civilian clothes except for Beast who was wearing his X-Men uniform, black tights with a yellow X down the side of the legs, and a belt with a standard X-Men X symbol for the buckle. "Whoa! A blue werewolf..." Isaac thought as he left the X-Jet and saw Beast for the first time. "What?! Were did the other blue elf looking guy come from..." He thought to himself as Nightcrawler suddenly appeared at the bottom of the exit ramp.

"Welcome home Freunden! Hey, who's the new guy?" Nightcrawler exclaimed in an excited German accent.

"Ah hello Kurt, his name's Isaac," Replied Professor X, turning to Beast as he continued. "Hank if you would be so kind as to show Isaac to his room," He asked.

"Certa—" Beast started to say before he was interrupted by Nightcrawler.

"If it's ok with Beast, might I show him around instead Professor?" Nightcrawler asked interrupting Beast before he could finish what he was going to say. "That way Beast can continue studying the meteorite," He continued, as he motioned for Isaac to come with him.

"If you insist, then be my guest and show our new friend around his new home. Whilst I continue to discover what secrets the meteorite may hold," Replied Beast as he turned to leave the hanger and go back to studying the meteorite.

"Wunderbar!" Nightcrawler exclaimed as he offered to show Isaac around his new home, the X-Mansion.

Isaac and Nightcrawler walked through two large mahogany doors and entered into the foyer, where there was a polished tile floor, marble pillars, a hanging chandelier and two sets of stairs that curved around towards them and met in the middle at the second level. Isaac was carrying a large suit case in his hand and dragging another suitcase behind him on wheels, he was also wearing a back pack. "Guten Tag friend, I am Kurt Wagner. Welcome to the X-Men," Nightcrawler said, as he entered the foyer with Isaac.

"You're German? X-Men what?" Isaac asked still trying to process everything that was going on. "Man this is some crazy shit," He thought as he walked into the foyer.

"Ja that's right Isaac, I am German. The X-Men is what we call ourselves here, this is the foyer by the way. That's the front door over there," explained Nightcrawler as he pointed towards the front door. "Please allow me to take your bags to your room, and then I'll show you around. Ja?" He asked as he moved to take Isaac's bags from him.

"Cool," Isaac replied, as he handed his bags to Nightcrawler. After receiving Isaac's bags Nightcrawler teleported away, in a cloud of red smoke that smelled of sulphur and made a 'BAMF' noise. Teleporting him to Isaac's dorm room where dropped off his bags, putting them neatly on the bed. "Wow that's pretty cool, so that must be his special power" Isaac thought, as Nightcrawler vanished. Moments later Nightcrawler teleported himself back to foyer, creating the same sulphurous red smoke and 'BAMF' sound as before. It startled Isaac as he thought to himself, "I thought he was just a fuzzy blue elf with weird shaped hands." Nightcrawler suddenly appeared in front of him again, after teleporting back to the foyer. "Wow man, that was cool, I thought you were only a fuzzy blue elf, eheheh," He said, waving away the cloud of red smoke left behind from Nightcrawler's teleportation ability.

"I am just a fuzzy blue elf, but I can also teleport around. What kind of powers do you have?" Nightcrawler asked, excited to get to know Isaac more.

"I control the shadows," Isaac replied, smiling nervously as he prepared to use his own mutant powers.

"Really? I'd love to see that," Nightcrawler said, as he became more curious about what Isaac could do as a mutant.

"Alright, gimme a sec," Isaac replied, smiling focusing his mind and starting to move shadows onto the floor of the foyer where he created the shadow of a deer grazing. He made the deer look up and over its shoulder as if it had been startled. He then made a shadow tiger pounce on the deer, taking it down before he made all the shadows return to normal.

"Way cool man, you should take the nickname Shadow Puppet," Nightcrawler said, impressed by the shadow puppetry Isaac had just shown him.

"Hmm... You think so?" Isaac asked, as he thought to himself "Shadow Puppet eh ... I like it."

"Ja I do, we all have nick names or code names. Mine is Nightcrawler," he explained, as he led Isaac out of the foyer. "Shall we continue the tour?" He asked, now that he had seen what Isaac's mutant powers were.

"Alright man sounds good," Isaac replied; keen to get to explore his new home, he followed Nightcrawler out of the foyer. "Nightcrawler eh... That's a cool nickname man... I can't wait to see more of this place and meet some more of you guys," He continued, looking around trying to figure out how big this place really was.

The next room Nightcrawler showed Shadow Puppet to was the common room. Inside the common room there was a pool/snooker table, a ping pong table, a large flat screen TV, a couple of couches, several lounge chairs and one of each of the three latest video game consoles; a PS3 an X-box 360 and a Nintendo Wii U. There was also a cabinet with various video games and Blu ray DVD's inside it. Cyclops was also there, playing pool with Pyro/St. John Allerdyce. They were both casually dressed in comfortable civilian clothes. "This is the common room; where we come to hang out, relax, have fun and basically just chill out," Explained Nightcrawler as he motioned around the room with his right hand.

"Still showing the new guy around Kurt?" Cyclops asked, looking up from his game to see Nightcrawler and Shadow Puppet standing in the doorway.

"Ja. He just finished showing me his Shadow powers in the foyer, it was great man," Nightcrawler said acknowledging Cyclops.

Before anyone could say anything else, "Pretty sweet place you fullas have here bro," Shadow Puppet said, looking around the room, not really wanting to show off his powers again or even talk about them just yet.

"Bloody 'ell mate you sound like a $%#ing Sheep shagger," Pyro exclaimed as he instantly picked up on Shadow Puppet's New Zealand accent.

"Sheep Shagger? That's real original ya $%#ing Roo Jockey," Shadow Puppet retorted, jokingly after hearing Pyro's distinctly Australian accent.

"Whoa, guys calm down. This isn't the place to start a fight," Said Cyclops, concerned that the two of them were about to start fighting.

"Take it easy Yank. We were just sayin' Hello," Pyro explained to Cyclops to let him know that they were not going to fight each other.

Shadow Puppet laughed slightly and said, "Yeah, chill bro," reassuring Cyclops that nothing serious was going to happen.

"That's just how it is between Aussies and Kiwis mate," said Pyro, confirming that it was just friendly banter between himself and Shadow Puppet.

"Well ...that's ok ...then ...I guess," Cyclops said, still a little bit confused about what just happened.

"See Scott, you need to chill more and stop worrying so much," Nightcrawler said, in a slightly mocking tone of voice. "Alright Isaac, shall we continue the tour?" He asked motioning towards the door.

"Sure Kurt, let's go," Replied Shadow Puppet, as he turned to leave the room. "See you fullas later," He called out over his shoulder as he followed Nightcrawler to their next destination.

"Yeah mate, see ya round," Pyro called back, as he returned to his game of pool with Cyclops.

After visiting the common room and meeting Cyclops and for the first time Pyro. Shadow Puppet followed Nightcrawler into the kitchen. It was a large restaurant style kitchen with everything you could possibly need to prepare any meal you could possibly want to eat. "Through here is the kitchen. The fridge and pantry are usually well stocked with all kinds of food. There's even a chef on call that can cook up anything you need, or you can cook yourself if you wanted to," Nightcrawler said, as he walked into the centre of the kitchen.

"Tumeke! Bet you could have some mean as boil-ups in here cuz," said Shadow Puppet excitedly, thinking about food and becoming a little bit hungry.

"Mean as boil-ups?" Nightcrawler asked, curiously wondering what kind of meal Shadow Puppet was talking about.

Shadow Puppet excitedly explained how to cook 'Boil-ups,' "Yeah Bro! Chuck some pork bones, potatoes, kumara and puha in a pot and boil it up, yum as Gee."

"Simple but delicious yes?" Nightcrawler asked still curious about the dish.

"Yeah bro, where to next?" Shadow Puppet nodded in agreement and asked where the next stop on the tour was before he became too hungry.

"Right this way," Said Nightcrawler, as he moved through the door at the other side of the kitchen and into the dining room.

Shadow Puppet quickly looked around the kitchen, one last time before following Nightcrawler through to the dining room. It was a fairly simple room a large bay window was on the wall at the left if you were coming in through the kitchen. There were several paintings hanging on the walls around the room. The table was a large extravagant mahogany table that was rectangular and could seat ten people around it. Kitty Pryde/Shadow Cat was sitting on one of the corner chairs eating a bowl of ramen noodles, using chopsticks. She was also wearing her everyday civilian clothes. "Next is the dining room," Said Nightcrawler as Shadow Puppet entered the room.

"Whoa, she's hot" Shadow Puppet thought, as he laid his eyes on Shadow Cat for the first time.

"Oh hey Kurt, Who's that?" Shadow Cat asked looking up from her noodles as Shadow Puppet and Nightcrawler entered the room.

"Guten Tag Kitty, he's the new guy. His name's Isaac," Nightcrawler explained as he walked further into the dining room.

Shadow Cat smiled at them and said. "Hi Isaac, my name's Kitty Pryde, nice to meet you." Shadow Puppet was startled slightly when Shadow Cat spoke to him, as if breaking him out of a daydream.

"... oh umm. Hey nice meeting you too, Kitty right? Kurt's been calling me Shadow Puppet" His first couple of words escaped his mouth nervously before his normal speaking voice returned.

Shadow Cat's smile widened slightly as she heard Shadow Puppet's voice for the first time. "Wow his accent is hot, and he's kinda cute," she thought to herself and was about to say something but Nightcrawler interrupted, denying her that chance.

"I called you that one time dude" he said, turning to face Shadow Puppet.

"Yeah and I like it. I think it suits me," Shadow Puppet said; without taking his eyes off Shadow cat.

"Why Shadow Puppet?" Shadow Cat asked, curious about why Nightcrawler would have given Isaac that nickname.

"His power is to control the shadows," Nightcrawler explained, placing a three fingered hand on Shadow Puppet's shoulder.

"Wow that sounds amazing!" Shadow Cat exclaimed excitedly, as she put down her ramen bowl, having only just realised she was still holding it.

"Maybe I'll show you sometime," Shadow Puppet said, with a smile and taking a step closer to where Shadow Cat was sitting.

"I'd like that, oh and people call me Shadow Cat," Kitty replied, blushing slightly and brushing her hair back behind her ear, still smiling at Shadow Puppet.

"Shadow Cat huh... Nice!" Shadow Puppet said, excitedly and wanting to spend more time getting to know Shadow Cat better.

Shadow Cat said, "Thanks," And smiled while looking into Shadow Puppet's eyes.

Before she could say anything else Nightcrawler, interrupted her thoughts, by saying. "C'mon let's continue the tour and leave Kitty to finish her meal," As he wanted to keep showing Isaac around, he walked through the door on the wall that was opposite the bay window, Isaac followed behind him waving at Shadow Cat.

"Ok... I guess I'll see you around Kitty," He said as he turned to face Kitty before leaving the room.

"Yeah I hope so," Shadow Cat said excitedly, as she waved good bye to Shadow Puppet, before going back to finish her noodles.

Through the door was the living room. Nightcrawler moved into the middle of the room. This was quite large; there were several couches around the room, and a large coffee table sitting near the couches. There were also, several lazy boy chairs in the lounge, along with a projector and screen, for watching movies. The room was otherwise empty. "This place is huge," Shadow Puppet thought, as he entered the living room.

"This is the living room, we mostly use it to watch movies or just to relax, there's nothing really that interesting about it," Nightcrawler explained as he moved through the living room and back into the foyer.

"Wow this is awesome," Shadow Puppet said as he followed Nightcrawler back into the foyer. After leaving the living room, they moved up stairs into the hallway and followed it along. Until they finally reached the dorm room that Isaac would be staying in.

"This will be your room, Isaac," Nightcrawler said as he opened the door to the room, the number 278 was on the outside of the door, as if it was a hotel room, or an apartment. Shadow Puppet entered first followed by Nightcrawler. He looked around the room which was a decent size and was fully furnished; with a single bed, a desk under a window with a lamp sitting on it. There was also a small bedside table next to the bed. This was in a corner of the room on the right hand side of the room. On the left hand side was a door that led into an en suite bathroom, which contained a bathtub, a shower, a toilet and a single wall mounted bathroom vanity. There was even a phone mounted on the wall next to the door, leading back to the hallway. Isaac's bags were neatly stacked on the bed. "Welcome to your new bedroom and home, through that door over there is an en suite bathroom. If you need anything else just ask one of us, we're all pretty cool dudes," Nightcrawler told Shadow Puppet as he pointed out the door to the bathroom.

"Cool man, thanks for the tour bro," Shadow Puppet said as he checked out his new room.

"It was my pleasure, friend. I'll leave you to get settled in then," Said Nightcrawler, offering to shake Shadow Puppet's hand.

Shadow Puppet took a firm grip of Nightcrawler's three fingered hand and shook it as he said. "Alright man, catch you later." After releasing the hand shake Nightcrawler teleported away, leaving Shadow Puppet to settle himself in and unpack his bags.

After Nightcrawler had finished showing Shadow Puppet around, he started to unpack his bags, and mulled over everything that happened when He arrived. "Seems like they have people from all over the world living here, from Germany and America to Australia and now New Zealand too," Shadow Puppet thought as he started to settle in to his new home. After he finished unpacking his bags Shadow Puppet lay on his new bed, for a while his mind racing as he still couldn't believe what was going on. Then his mind started to wander and he started to fall asleep, until he suddenly remembered that he was supposed to call his parents as soon as he'd arrived. So He got up off the bed and walked to the phone in his room, he was about to dial when he thought "Maybe I should ask if it's ok for me to call home first."

As Shadow Puppet went to put the phone back on the hook, he heard the Professor's voice in his head. "Of course you can. You can use the phone to call home anytime you like Isaac," Professor X told Shadow Puppet telepathically projecting his thoughts into Shadow Puppet's head, as he had been monitoring Isaac's and everyone's thoughts to make sure he was settling in well.

After hearing the voice of Professor X in his head, Shadow Puppet felt reassured and picked up the phone again. As he dialled he wondered if his parents would still be awake, he also wondered what time it was back home in New Zealand. The phone rang for a short period of time and Shadow Puppet was about to put it down when he heard his mother's voice on the other side. "Hello?" She asked, answering the phone.

"Hi mum, it's me Isaac," He said excitedly after hearing his mother's voice again.

"Oh Hello Isaac," His mother said, before she called out for her husband. "HONEY! IT'S ISAAC ON THE PHONE!" She yelled excitedly, calling for Isaac's father, who was in another room. "How are you? Is everything ok? Are you settling in well? Have you made any new friends yet? Have you got enough warm clothes? How's the weather over there?" She bombarded him with questions enthusiastically, wanting to know how her son was doing.

"I'm fine mum; I've only just got here, and had the tour of the main house where everyone lives. You wouldn't believe some of the things I already seen," Replied Isaac, as he happily told his mum that he was ok.

"That's nice dear; tell me about the things you said I won't believe you about," His mother asked; keen to know what her son had seen.

"Well, there was this big blue werewolf, I think his name was Hank or Henry or something, and there was this other blue guy... from Germany who showed me around, his Name is Kurt and he can teleport from place to place, it makes this stinky red smoke when he does it too though," Isaac explained to his mother, over the phone as best he could.

"Wow that's sounds really amazing," Exclaimed Isaac's mother, in awe of the things her son had just described.

"Hey mum I'm really tired; I'll call again later ok," Said Isaac as he let out a long yawn.

"Alright son thanks for calling get some sleep, g'bye I love you son," Said Isaac's mother, feeling a little sad to say goodbye so soon.

"Bye mum, love you too," Isaac said as he hung up the phone ending his call home. After he hung up the phone he went to get changed into some pyjamas and got into his new bed and where he slowly drifted off to sleep. Meanwhile back in New Zealand his mother told his father about what she talked to her son on the phone about.

The next day Shadow Puppet woke up at around two in the afternoon. He took a shower and headed to the kitchen to get breakfast, after he got dressed. Most of the other X-Men had gone out, for the day. So Shadow Puppet decided to take a look around, he ended up heading towards the common room, where Shadow Cat was playing Mario Kart 8, on the Nintendo wii U. "Oh... hey.. It was Kitty right?" He asked, entering the room and seeing her there.

"Heyyyy! Yes it is. Your name's Isaac right?" She replied, excited that he had remembered her name.

"Yeah it is. So what'cha doin'?" He asked, even though he could see what she was doing.

Shadow Cat giggled as she said, "I'm just playing some Mario Kart, wanna play with me?"

"Oh man I used to love playing Mario Kart on the N64 when I was a kid; I'd love to play with you!" Shadow Puppet replied excitedly, as he went and sat next to her on the couch and picked up the extra controller. "I bet I can kick your arse at this," He said laughing a little.

"Oh yeah, well this ain't no Mario Kart 64 and you should know I got MLG level skills I bet I'll easily beat you," Shadow Cat replied jokingly, as she switched the game into two player mode. "What do you wanna do, Championship, Time Attack, or Battle?" she asked, hovering the cursor over each option as she said it.

"Hmm... let's play ... Battle mode," He replied, thinking the options over in his head before deciding. "How about we make this interesting since you're so confident? If I win you have to go on a date with me," Shadow Puppet asked eager to see how she would respond.

"And what if I win?" Shadow Cat asked, unable to think of anything she wanted as her prize for winning.

"Umm... I'll cook you dinner one day, if you can beat me, how about that?" Shadow Puppet asked, since he wanted to impress her, even though he wasn't the best cook, he could still prepare an edible meal.

"Umm... How do I know you can cook?" She asked, as she pressed the button changing to the character select screen and picked Princess Peach for her character.

"You'll just have to wait and see if you can beat me," He replied as he picked King Bowser for his character.

"All right! Bring it on! Best of five, you better be a good cook because I will beat you 3-0." She laughed as she spoke and set the game to a best of five battle mode. "Winner gets to pick the track. But since you won't be getting a pick you can choose the first one," She said teasing Shadow Puppet playfully.

Shadow Puppet picked the N64 Double Decker battle stage as he said. "It'll be 3-0, but I'll be the winner!" He laughed as the game started, and he easily won the first match. "See! Told ya that's already one win to me!" He said excitedly, as he picked Wuhu town for the next map.

"Aww no fair you cheated somehow," Shadow Cat complained as the next game started.

"I didn't cheat! Don't be a sore loser," Shadow Puppet said, narrowly losing the game for this round.

"Yahoo! See you did cheat in that other game, or else I would of won that too cheater!" She said with a laugh teasing Shadow Puppet some more. "My pick, my pick," She said happily as she picked Funky Stadium for the next round, winning it comfortably. "I was joking when I said you cheated I let you win the first round, because I didn't want you to feel too bad about losing to a girl!" She said as the victory screen showed her character. "Ha-ha I win again! One more and you owe me dinner, you better be a good cook Isaaaaac," She continued to taunt, Shadow Puppet as she picked the next map for round four. She chose the N64 Skyscraper map.

"Oh please... I let you win those two games because I didn't want you to feel stink about getting your butt whooped each time," Said Shadow Puppet, with a slight hint of anger and sarcasm in his voice. "I'm gonna play seriously now, so you better start thinking about what you want to wear for our date Kiiiitty," He said mockingly eventually winning the round. "Seeee told you, you can't beat me when I play serious it's match point now. And it's my pick so get ready to lose!" said Shadow Puppet taunting Shadow Cat playfully back. He picked the N64 Double Decker map that he picked for their firs game and said, "Remember the butt whooping you got on this map last time, prepare it for another spanking this time around too," He said with a laugh as the last round began, however she would eventually beat him.

"WOOO HOOO! In your face LOSER! You OWE ME DINNER! See what happens when you get cocky! WOOOO HOOOO! I WIN! I WIN! WINNER! WINNER! COOK ME DINNER!" She said excitedly, and danced around the room taunting Shadow Puppet, making an L shape with her hands and holding it up to her forehead, as she called him a loser.

Shadow Puppet blushed looking down embarrassed as he lost the last round. "Shut up ow, I let you win..." He lied, trying to make her stop taunting him. He felt a little disappointed but he couldn't help but laugh as Shadow Cat laughed and mocked him. "Okay, okay you won so I'll cook you dinner... even though you cheated," He said it jokingly hoping she would feel bad for him and say it was ok and he didn't really have to cook her dinner.

"Nuh uh I didn't cheat! Don't be a sore loser just because you have to cook me dinner," She said and threw a pillow at him, playfully.

Isaac let the pillow hit him in the face. "Oww, I know, I promise I'll cook you something nice, at least be gracious in victory geez," He complained, throwing the pillow back at her, but she used her powers to let it phase through her body. Shadow Puppet looked shocked and asked, "How did you do that? Cheater, are you a ghost?"

Kitty giggled as she explained her mutant powers to Isaac, "No I'm alive I can just make my body intangible, I can make anything I touch intangible as a matter of fact."

"Wow that's pretty cool. It must come in handy for sneaking into places and stuff eh?" Shadow Puppet asked, fascinated not only by Shadow Cat's powers, but by her in general.

"So are you going to show me your powers, Mr. Shadow Puppet, I'd love to see them," She said, batting her eyelashes at him and giving him her best puppy dog look, in case he needed further convincing.

"Sure," He replied, shifting his gaze off her and to an empty wall in the room. "Look over there miss Shadow Cat," He told her, pointing to the wall, where he had started to form shadow puppet versions of them on the wall but then quickly changed one of the figures into a cat and the other into a marionette puppet. He made the puppet dance, while it looked as if the cat was pulling the strings. Then he made the puppet walk, in that funny marionette puppet style of moving, over to the cat and picking it up, holding it in its puppet arms and softly stroking its shadow fur.

"Daawww, that's sooo cute," Shadow cat said, as she turned to face Shadow Puppet, giggling as she pounced on him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Kurt was right Shadow Puppet suits you," She continued, as she quickly pecked him on the cheek, causing him to blush, turning his face a bright red. "It was, very impressive but you still owe me dinner o'kaaaaaay," She said it playfully reminding him of their bet as she jumped back to her feet. "Don't forget 'kay," She said, with a smirk, as she left the room phasing through the door.

Shadow Puppet then melted into the shadows and brought himself up out of the shadows in the hall blocking Shadow Cat's path and startled her, her eyes widening in shock as she let out a small squeal. "Don't worry I won't forget and I promise you'll like it," Shadow Puppet said as he winked at her.

She playfully hit him in the chest, a few times. "You moron! You scared the crap outta me, I didn't know you could do that... whatever you just did, too," She said in a slightly annoyed tone, blushing from the embarrassment of being scared, so easily. "I better be as impressed by your cooking ability as I was by your shadow puppet show," She said, trying to stay mad at him for scaring her, she walked past him making her body intangible so that she could walk straight through him. "Otherwise I won't ever talk to you again," She teased, giggling to herself as she walked away, thinking "OMG I think I have a crush on him." She blushed as she walked quickening her pace, her mind racing thinking of what he was going to cook for her.

Shadow Puppet called out, "Don't worry I wont! ... What time do you want dinner?" He asked, as he realised they hadn't set a time yet.

"Oh let's say around Eight!" Shadow Cat called out turning to look over her shoulder as he kept walking.

"Eight it is," Shadow Puppet thought to himself while, watching her walk away. "She's really awesome, I like her," He thought, as he headed to the kitchen feeling hungry as he hadn't eaten in a while.

As Shadow Puppet walked to the kitchen, he tried to think of what he wanted to cook for her, but he couldn't really think of anything mostly because he didn't know what kind of food she liked and also because he didn't know what foods there would be available to use. As he got to the kitchen he looked in the pantry and fridge, for something for himself to eat and to see what food there was for him to use, for when he had to cook Shadow Cat dinner. He still couldn't think of anything to cook for her. "I wonder if she's a vegetarian or not..." He thought to himself, "What to eat, what to eat," He repeated, looking over the food stuffs in the kitchen. "Bacon... Eggs... I'll make myself some bacon and eggs on toast," He said to himself, picking up some bacon and a couple of eggs from the fridge. He put them on the bench and looked for a fry pan to cook the bacon in; once he found that he put it on the stove and turned the element on. Shadow Puppet then got some butter and used it to grease the pan. He cracked the eggs and poured them into a bowl, got some milk and poured that into the bowl too. He then got some bread and put it in the toaster, then put the bacon in the pan mixed the milk and eggs with a fork and put the bowl into the microwave, for a couple of minutes. He was putting everything back; the bread, butter and milk and throwing out the egg shells when Pyro walked into the kitchen.

"G'day mate, tryin'ta burn the bloody house down already are ya?" Joked Pyro, as he saw who was cooking.

" $%# off bro. I got mad cooking skills cuz," Replied Shadow Puppet, as he took the bacon out of the pan and put it on a plate, the toast popping up shortly after.

"Oh yeah? Giza taste then mate?" Pyro asked, as Shadow Puppet put the toast onto the plate, and the eggs finished cooking in the microwave.

" $%#ing hell, banro do I look like your personal chef?" Shadow Puppet asked, as he mixed some, mixed herbs, salt and pepper into the eggs with a fork. "Get yourself a plate, if you're so hungry and some T-sauce yo," He told, Pyro as he scooped the eggs onto the plate with the toast and the bacon.

"Ha-ha! Sweet, good on ya mate," Pyro said as he got himself a plate and took the tomato sauce out of the fridge. "Don't think I caught your name the other day mate," He continued, setting his plate on the bench.

"It's Isaac, and I didn't catch yours either bro," Replied Shadow Puppet, scraping half the bacon, eggs and toast onto Pyro's plate, and squirting tomato sauce onto what was left on his plate. Then he picked up a knife and fork and went into the dining room. He took a seat at one of the corner places.

"The names Saint-John, but folks 'round 'ere call me Pyro," he said, and he also put some tomato sauce on his bacon and eggs, got a knife and fork and then went and sat opposite Shadow Puppet.

"For real that's your name, are your parent paramedics or some $%#?" Shadow Puppet asked, as he started to eat his bacon and eggs on toast.

"Yeah mate that's me real name, but me folks aren't paramedics though," Pyro explained as He tried some of the bacon and eggs on toast. "Hmm! Not bad mate. Say did you get a nickname yet?" He asked, as he continued to eat his meal.

"Yeah man, Shadow Puppet. That Kurt fulla came up with it," He replied, putting another fork full of food into his mouth.

"Oh yeah, he's a top bloke alright. Hey listen I ain't doin' nuthin' so I could show you 'round some if yas want?" He asked, finishing his plate.

"Yeah? Alright bro. We going now or later on?" Shadow Puppet asked, also finishing his meal.

"Let's go now eh mate. The sooner the better," replied Pyro, as he got up and took his plate and cutlery and put them in the dishwasher.

"Sweet bro let's get going then eh," Said Shadow Puppet, as he did the same and headed towards the front door. "We walking or driving bro?" He asked, as they left through the front door of the X-Mansion.

"Drivin' c'mon car's over 'ere mate," Pyro said as he headed off towards his car, got into the driver's seat of a blue Nissan Skyline.

"Sweet as cuz. Nice wheels bro," Replied Shadow Puppet, as he climbed into the front passenger seat.

"It ain't real easy to lost around here every things all numbers an letters maybe a word or two, but it's all set up in a grid pattern 'n shit so driving around is pretty easy," Explained Pyro, as he started the car and he took off out the main gate. "Once you get to the main part of the city that is," He continued, as they drove, not really going anywhere in particular.

"Cool man... what kinda sounds you got in here?" Asked Shadow Puppet turning on the radio and searching for a station he liked.

"It's only got a standard sound system right now mate," Replied Pyro, as he drove past Central Park. "That's Central Park Over there," He said, gesturing towards the park.

"Cool, where are we going bro?" Shadow Puppet asked, looking into the park, through his window.

"Nowhere in particular mate just cruisin' for now," He replied, taking a left, heading away from the park.

"Alright, cool," Shadow Puppet said, changing the station on the radio. They drove around for a while, and ended up back at Central Park. Pyro parked the car and they got out.

"C'mon mate, let's go to the park, and get a hotdog, best ones in New York are found in the park mate," Pyro said, as he started walking through the park, which had quite a few people milling about in it.

"Alright bro. Your shout since you ate half my bacon and eggs eh cuz," Said Shadow Puppet, following Pyro to the hotdog stand.

" %$#ing cheapskate," Pyro replied, as he ordered a couple of hotdogs, with the works. The hotdog vendor had just handed them their hotdogs when a woman's scream echoed out through the park.

A man with a young child ran towards them and the woman screamed. "SOMEBODY STOP THAT MAN HE STOLE MY BABY! PLEASE HELP ME! SAVE MY BABY!" She chased the man through the park, as she yelled. Almost without thinking Pyro took the flames from the hotdog vendor's grill and moved them into the path of the man who had stolen the baby from the woman. While Shadow stood wide eyed in shock as he had never seen anything like that happen before; both a kidnapping in broad daylight and Pyro use his mutant powers.

"Oi mate! Put the kid down!" Pyro said, in an angry tone of voice, as he walked towards the man keeping him trapped behind his flames.

"O-ok man... J-just don't hurt me..." replied the man who was afraid for his life and didn't want to get burned up. So he did as he was told.

"Now get outta here!" Pyro told the man in a stern voice and walked up to the little girl. By now a rather large group had formed. He put the flames back into the grill and calmed himself down as he approached the little girl. "It's alright little girl you're safe now," He said. As he took the little girls hand, but she started to cry loudly, as she was seemingly more scared of Pyro than the man who tried to kidnap her.

"Get away from her you FREAK!" yelled the girl's mother angrily as she ran up and snatched her child away from Pyro.

"Hey take it easy lady. He just saved your daughter. Show som-" Shadow Puppet tried to explain to the woman, in a calm voice.

"Shut your %$#ing mouth! I don't need help from a freak like that! You must be one too if you're sticking up for that inhuman filth!" The woman yelled angrily, interrupting him, as the crowd started to become unruly.

"We don't need freaks like you around here!" one of the crowd members yelled, as another threw a rock at Pyro, who ducked out of the way.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa yous need to calm down; he just saved that little girl," Shadow Puppet said trying to calm the crowd, which started to close in around them, yelling obscenities and taunting them.

Suddenly a few more people in the crowd starting throwing rocks, at the two mutants they had surrounded. "Oi You wanna go do ya I'll Burn the lot of ya!" Pyro yelled angrily as he was hit in the head by a couple of rocks. He pulled the flames out of the grill again, and made them look extra sinister. Scaring the crowd who continued to taunt them and yell anti mutant slogans at them.

"It ain't worth it bro," Said Shadow Puppet, as he place his hand on Pyro's shoulder and melted them into the shadows, causing Pyro's flames to disappear back into the grill, as another barrage of rocks came flying at them while the crowd continued to rage against the two X-Men. Shadow Puppet then pulled the two of them up out of the shadows and into Pyro's car. "Let's just go mate... that's some bull shit... but it ain't worth fighting them for."

"Yeah, mate you're right," Pyro said as he started to calm down, and started the car.

" %$# bro is it always like that?" Shadow Puppet asked, missing the mundaneness of his life in New Zealand slightly.

"Nah mate, you get that %$# sometimes, and sometimes people are cool, usually one person sets off and then they all follow like sheep... No offence, sheep shagger," Pyro explained as he drove away from the park.

" %$# you bro with your sheep shagger shit. Shoulda left your ass there," Shadow Puppet joked, still trying to wrap his head around what just happened. He'd experienced racism before but that was next level murderous hatred, something he was experiencing for the first time.

"Mate, you're a good mate thanks for gettin' us out before things seriously kicked off," He said as he drove them further away from the park. "Oi mate, we're gonna go see Magneto now, he's a good mate too, I reckon you'll like 'im," He said. Taking a right turn he started driving towards, Magneto's hide out.

"Magneto, eh... who's that?" Shadow Puppet asked curiously, as he finally started to relax after being hyped up from the incident in the park.

"Yeah, he's friends with Charlie boy. Though he see's the roles of mutant's differently," He explained as they pulled up to Magneto's hide out. They got out of the car, and knocked on the door.

Toad/Mortimer Toynbee greeted them, as he opened the door. "Oh heya Pyro, who's that guy?" He asked, staring down Shadow Puppet, who stood next to Pyro and stared down Toad.

"Relax mate, he's cool, He's one of Charlie boy's new guys," Explained Pyro, patting Shadow Puppet on the back, in a friendly manner.

"Oh yeah well then he ain't welcome around here, and neither are you, so scram!" Said Toad, Irritated that Pyro had bought one of the X-Men to Magneto's hideout.

"Thought these guys were supposed to be Pyro's mates," Shadow Puppet thought to himself as, Toad went off on his little rant.

Suddenly from the distance, Magneto's/Erik Lensherr's confident voice silenced Toad. "Calm down Mortimer, We're all friends here. If Saint-John says he's ok then he should be welcomed with open arms, not turned away like a stray dog," He said, as he got up from what he was doing and walked to the doorway to greet his visitors. "Please forgive Mortimer, sometimes he acts the way he looks. Please come in, you're most welcome," He continued, as Toad moved aside and held the door open, for Pyro and Shadow Puppet, while looking rather sorry for himself.

Shadow Puppet walked inside feeling more reassured, after being welcomed by Magneto. Pyro followed and elbowed Toad in the gut as he walked past him muttering, "Muppet." Under his breath, the elbow caused Toad to hunch over slightly and to cough.

"Make yourselves at home," Magneto said, motioning towards the lounge and taking a seat in one of the leather chairs. Shadow Puppet and Pyro sat on the couch, which angled slightly away from and was across from Magneto's chair. "Would you two like a drink? Water? Soda? Orange Juice? Perhaps," He asked, as they took their seats on the couch.

"Yeah, I'll have water, please," replied Shadow Puppet, accepting Magneto's offer of a drink.

"Nah mate nothing for me," Pyro said, since he wasn't really thirsty.

"Mortimer, get our guest a glass of water," He told Toad, who was about to take a seat in another chair, at the other end of the couch and facing towards the one Magneto was sitting in. "Aren't you going to introduce me to your new friend, Mr. Allerdyce?" Magneto asked, shifting his gaze from Toad to Pyro, as he spoke to him.

"Yeah, I was about to. His name is Isaac or Shadow Puppet as the X-Men have dubbed him," answered Pyro, relaxing into the couch.

"A pleasure to meet you Isaac, most people know me as Magneto," He said, leaning forward and offering to shake Shadow Puppet's hand.

Shadow Puppet leaned forward and shook Magneto's hand. "It's nice to meet you too sir," He said, leaning back into his seat on the couch. Just then Toad came back and handed him a glass of water. "Thanks," He said reaching up to take the glass.

"I trust things are working out well for you at the Xavier Institute, young master Allerdyce," Magneto said speaking in his usual eloquent tone of voice.

"Yeah they're alright; I took this guy to the park today to show him around a bit, since he's never been ta New York before," Pyro said, gesturing towards Shadow Puppet as he talked. "We tried to help some lady get her kid back then people started getting pissed off when they found out we were mutants and threw rocks. It looked like we were going to have to fight our way out, until Shadow Puppet took us out of there," He explained, leaning forward slightly as he spoke about what happened.

"The ignorance of humans, hating the people who try to help them simply because they're afraid, they mock what they do not understand," Magneto said, in a slightly angry tone of voice. Shadow Puppet took a drink of water as he listened to them talk. "I believe that one day the mutants will one day rise up and overthrow the normal humans, that the world would be a better place if everyone was a mutant," He explained his voice calming down to his normal tone. "What do you think Isaac?" He asked, shifting his focus to Shadow Puppet, who had just finished drinking his glass of water.

"Umm ... Before today I didn't really care, nothing like that has ever happened to me before so I didn't care either way, but what happened at the park... I think you might be right. It would be easier if everyone was a mutant like us," Shadow Puppet said, trying his best to explain his thoughts, while still uncertain about how he thought on the subject, which he hadn't really thought much about in the first place.

"Good then you understand my point," Magneto said, readjusting his sitting position. "Charles Xavier believes in finding a peaceful solution between mutants and humans, where we work alongside each other, and in an ideal world that would work, but Isaac we do not live in an ideal world. We live in this world, where humans have hated other humans for simply being a different skin color or thinking differently than they do," He continued to explain passionately, as he stood up and paced across the room, while the others watched and listened. "Just look at the history of Earth the Crusades, the holocaust, slavery, the list goes on," He continued, finishing his rant and sitting back down in his chair.

"Wow this guy goes on and on, he does make some good points though" Thought Isaac to himself starting to believe in Magneto's convictions, as Magneto wound up his speech and sat back down.

"So what would you say if I told you there was a way that could turn everyone in the world into mutants like us, so that what happened to you in the park earlier today never had to happen to any one again?" Magneto asked, curiously to see what their answer would be and relaxing into his chair as he calmed down again.

"It'd be about bloody time," Pyro said, speaking first, still rather annoyed that everyone in the park ganged up on them even after they had saved the woman's little girl.

"It would be interesting to see if it would stop all the hatred or not," Shadow Puppet said giving a more diplomatic answer.

"I reckon it'd be a great idea," Toad said, agreeing with everything Magneto had just said.

"A few weeks ago Charles and his X-Men found part of a meteorite in Alaska, and a few days ago my friends and I found the other half of that meteorite in Antarctica," Magneto explained, looking towards Toad. "Mortimer, go and get our half of the meteorite," He told Toad, who got up and went out of the room to get their half of the meteorite. He bought it back into the room and handed it to Magneto. "This half combined with the other half I believe it will be possible to use the power hidden within the meteorite to turn everyone in the world into a mutant," He explained, as the others listened in awe. "So I would like to ask you Isaac and you too Saint-John, if you would bring the other half of the meteorite to me so that I can implement our plan and speed up the evolutionary process. Will you help me?" He asked, explaining his plan and holding up the meteorite, showing them what it looked like.

"You bet we can get it for ya," Pyro said excitedly, eager to help Magneto with his plan.

"I guess it shouldn't be too hard," Shadow Puppet said still a little unsure if that would be the right thing to do.

"Excellent, meet me at this address in an hour, with the other half of the meteorite," Magneto said handing Pyro a piece of paper with an address written on it.

"You got it Magneto," Pyro said, taking the piece of paper and reading the address written on it. "Let's go Isaac," He said standing up and walking towards the exit.

"Okay..." Said Shadow Puppet as he got up and followed Pyro out, and back to their car.

"How are we supposed to get the meteorite? I heard Hank was studying it," Shadow Puppet asked as they drove back towards the X-Mansion.

"We'll figure something out mate... besides Beast isn't at the Institute at the moment he's away with some of the others dunno what they're doing but he went with them so all we have to do is get into his lab and hope he didn't take the meteorite with him," Pyro explained, as they reached their destination and pulled into the drive way of the X-Mansion, and parked the car. "Only way to find out is to get into his lab," He said as he got out of the car, and closed the door. "You coming?" He asked Shadow Puppet, mockingly.

"Right... I should be able to get in no problem," He said getting out of the car, "And yes I'm coming moron," He said, slamming the door, feeling a little annoyed at the joke.

By now it was almost 7pm, and the sun was setting, giving the sky an orange glow. The two of them went into the X-mansion, through the front door. Pyro led Shadow Puppet to the part of the house where Beast's laboratory was. "Come on mate it's this way," He said, as he walked towards the entrance to the lab followed by Shadow Puppet.

As they got to the door Pyro tried to open the door only to find that it was locked. "Damn... Was hoping we could just walk right in," He said, frustrated and turned to face Shadow Puppet. "You said you could get in easy as right mate?" He asked, remembering what Shadow Puppet had said moments ago and hinting that he wanted him to go inside and get the meteorite.

Shadow Puppet walked up to the door and peered through the window on the door, looking around. He saw various scientific apparatuses on a couple of benches; a computer was on a desk against one of the walls. Then he saw the other half of the meteorite on another desk. "I see it," He told Pyro, as he melted into the shadows. He pulled himself out of the shadows on the other side of the door, right next to the desk with the meteorite on it. He picked it up and tossed it into the air. "Got'cha," he said, as he caught it and melted back into the shadows with the meteorite. He pulled himself out of the shadows back in the hall way, and showed the meteorite to Pyro, who was standing guard. "See bro piece of cake," He said, handing the meteorite over to Pyro, who put it into a safety briefcase.

"Nicely done mate, you'd make a great thief," He joked, as he snapped the lid closed on the briefcase and started to walk back to the car. "Let's go take it to Magneto, now eh," He said, as they entered into the foyer.

"Bro, you'd know all about that eh convict," Joked Shadow Puppet, as he followed Pyro back to his car.

"Mate, don't start that %$# again ya %$#ing Sheep shagger," He said as he opened the door to his car, putting the briefcase containing the meteorite into the back seat, with a laugh. Shadow Puppet was also laughing, as he got into the car. "Let's go eh mate," Pyro said while he started the car and drove back out of the drive way to the X-Mansion. "When we get there you take the case and give it to Magneto ok mate, I'm gonna stay in the car," He told Shadow Puppet, what he wanted him to do as they drove to the location on the piece of paper Magneto handed them earlier.

"No problem bro," Shadow Puppet said, as they approached their destination. A while, later they arrived at an alley way down one of the side streets in central New York. Magneto and Toad were waiting for them, while Apocalypse/En Sabah Nur watched from the roof top of one of the building surrounding the alleyway.

Apocalypse was the real reason Magneto knew how to use the meteorite fragments to turn the entire population of the earth into mutants. Apocalypse was using Magneto so that he could gain control of the meteorite for himself, to not only turn everyone on earth into mutants but also turn them into his slaves. However upon learning what the Meteorite could be used for Magneto intended to betray Apocalypse and use it himself, with the only difference being no one would be subject to slavery.

"I have the other meteorite, right here," Shadow Puppet said holding up the briefcase, as he approached Magneto and Toad who were waiting in the middle of the alleyway.

"Excellent work, thank you for bringing it, if you would be so kind as to show me, so that I can confirm you have it?" Magneto asked eager to get his hands on the meteorite before Apocalypse found out what was happening, as he was unaware that Apocalypse was already watching them.

Shadow Puppet then opened the case and showed Magneto and Toad his half of the meteorite. "Why's he so untrusting? He must be up to something," He thought to himself as he took the meteorite out holding it up so, the others could get a better look. "This is it right?" he asked as he put it back into the brief case.

"Yes that's it, Mortimer please retrieve the meteorite," Magneto replied, and motioned for Toad to take the brief case from Shadow Puppet.

However, at that moment Apocalypse descended from his hiding place on the roof. "Ahh, I see you found a lackey to bring me the other half of the meteorite," He said, as he hovered above everyone in the alleyway.

"Who the %$# is this guy?" Shadow Puppet thought as he watched Apocalypse descend from the rooftops behind Magneto and Toad. "I don't trust him," he thought, as he snuck the meteorite by surrounding it with shadows and keeping it hidden from sight out of the briefcase before closing it and handing it over to Toad.

"TOAD TAKE THE METEORITE AND RUN! I'LL HOLD OFF APOCALYPSE!" Yelled Magneto, as soon as he saw Toad take the briefcase and heard Apocalypse's voice.

"What the... I need to get help..." Pyro said as he saw what was going on in the alleyway and noticed Apocalypse hovering over the alleyway menacingly. He started the car and quickly took off the tyre's screeching. "Sorry mate, I'll be back," he thought, hoping Shadow Puppet and the others would still be ok, but knowing that he wouldn't be much help against Apocalypse.

At the same time Magneto turned his attention to Apocalypse, who flew towards Toad, who leapt away in such a way that he looked like a frog jumping. Magneto was taking the metal fire escape ladders and platforms off the sides of the buildings on the alleyway, with his power of magnetism. He wrapped them tightly around Apocalypse's body and limbs in an attempt to restrain him so that Toad could escape.

Meanwhile, Pyro raced back to the X-Mansion as fast as he could, running red lights and weaving furiously in and out of traffic. He finally reached the X-Mansion and came screeching to a stop, knocking over a small statue. He quickly got out of the car and ran around the Institute looking for someone to help him; He eventually found Shadow Cat and Nightcrawler, who were just hanging around in the living room. He ran up to up to them, panic stricken. "Guys! Shadow Puppet... Apocalypse! Magneto! Help!" He tried to explain what was going on.

"Whoa, dude calm down, take a breath and tell us what's wrong," Nightcrawler said, as he stood up and walked over to Pyro, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"What?! Is Shadow Puppet ok?" Shadow Cat asked, a look of concern growing on her face as she heard the names Apocalypse and Magneto.

Pyro took a deep breath, and calmed himself down as he began to explain. "Magneto said he wanted to use the meteorite to change everyone into mutants, but he was working for Apocalypse or something, Shadow Puppet and I were going to give the Meteorite to Magneto..." He took another breath still trying to calm down. "Apocalypse showed up, I don't know what is actually happening. Shadow Puppet needs help we gotta go!" He said, in a hurried panicked voice.

"Where to? Perhaps I can take us there," Nightcrawler asked, anxious to go and help his new friend.

"We gotta help him! We have to!" Shadow Cat cried, worried that something terrible would happen to Shadow Puppet.

"Can you get us here?" Pyro asked, showing Nightcrawler the address where he had taken Shadow Puppet to meet up with Magneto and hand over the meteorite.

"That... Is a little too far, I can get us close but not all the way. Grab on," Replied Nightcrawler, as he prepared to teleport them as close to the location on the address as he could.

"Treachery!" Apocalypse said, his voice booming through the alleyway, as he now switched his focus to Magneto. "Did you really think I didn't know you would betray me Erik!?" He asked unphased by the metal that Magneto was using to restrain him with.

Amongst all the chaos Shadow Puppet decided he would slip away. "Dunno who that big guy is, but I have a gut feeling that he ain't good," He thought as he disappeared into the shadows and ran around the corner, "I'll just take this back... That Magneto guy I can't trust him either," He thought when suddenly an explosion threw him off his feet.

The explosion came from the alleyway and was caused by Apocalypse, who had just fired an energy blast at Magneto which created a small crater, and destroyed part of the nearby buildings. It also sent Magneto flying out of the alley.

Toad stopped when he heard the explosion and turned to see Magneto bounce off the pavement, as he came flying out of the alleyway. Magneto saw Toad staring back at him and yelled. "TOAD GO NOW!" as he stood up, wrapped Apocalypse in metal again and slammed him into the ground, trying to pin him down. Toad also saw Shadow Puppet running in the opposite direction; he decided to check the briefcase.

"That sneaky son of a %$#," He muttered to himself as he turned and started chasing Shadow Puppet down.

Wolverine it just so happens was a few blocks away, riding on his motor bike, headed in the opposite direction to the explosion as he heard it. "What the hell was that?" He thought as he came skidding to a stop, in a cloud of smoke from his tyres, turning his bike ninety degrees. He looked over in the direction the explosion came from and saw smoke rising above the roof tops. "Better go check it out," He thought and raced off towards where the smoke was coming from. As he raced towards the scene he saw Shadow Puppet running towards him and Toad hot on his heels. "It's that kid again... What did the little punk get himself into now?" thought Wolverine, as he opened the throttle on his bike accelerating towards Shadow Puppet and Toad. "Grrraaaahhhh! Hey frog boy! Whatta you want with the kid!?" Said Wolverine as he leapt from his speeding bike, unleashing his claws with a 'snikt' sound and tackling Toad in mid air, as he was about to jump on Shadow Puppet.

Shadow Puppet watched in awe as he saw, from the corner of his eye, then turning his head to look over his shoulder to see, Wolverine come flying off his bike and tackling Toad out of the air. "That's one of the guys that was at my house the other day," thought Shadow Puppet, as he stumbled almost falling over since he wasn't paying attention to where he was running. At the same time Wolverine's bike lost balance and crashed to the ground, scraping along the road and hitting a parked car, causing the car's alarm to go off. "Damn that was cool," he said, as he tried to regain his balance, stopping himself from falling over.

Toad curled his legs up to his chest and back flipped, slamming his feet into Wolverines gut as he landed on top of him. Wolverines back crashing into the concrete road with a thud, the impact creating a few cracks in the roads surface. Wolverine growled in pain from the fall and the power of Toads feet hitting his stomach. As they landed Toad jumped back into the air, however Wolverine managed to grab his foot. Toad's momentum pulled them both up and then with a firm grip around Toad's ankle Wolverine slammed him down into the ground hard. He pinned him down and 'snikt' unleashed his adamantium claws, pressing them under his chin. "What do you want with the kid, frog boy?" Wolverine asked angrily, pressing his claws a little harder into Toad's skin drawing blood.

"He... has... the... meteorite..." Toad struggle to say, as he was in a lot of pain and every word he spoke caused Wolverine's claws to dig in a little more. Suddenly his eyes widened as he saw Apocalypse come out of the alleyway. "Apocalypse..." He started to say, as Wolverine turned over his shoulder to see what scared Toad so much all of a sudden.

"That stupid kid sure knows how to get himself into a lot of trouble," thought Wolverine. He had heard that Shadow Puppet had the meteorite and was now about to be attacked by Apocalypse. He let Toad go and stood up, preparing himself to fight Apocalypse.

Just then Pyro returned with, Shadow Cat and Nightcrawler, who had teleported them there and the arbitrary red smoke, was clearing. "ISAAC!" Shadow Cat called out when they got there and she saw him running from Apocalypse. They were a few hundred meters away from Shadow Puppet when they arrived. Shadow Puppet was running towards them, he stopped when he saw them. Pyro and the others looked up and saw Apocalypse flying towards Shadow Puppet.

"You will hand the meteorite to me boy" said Apocalypse in a demanding authourative tone of voice. Almost on top of Shadow Puppet as he spoke.

"RUN KID!" Wolverine yelled, as he launched himself at Apocalypse, with his claws out, growling like a wild animal.

Shadow Puppet quickly looked over his shoulder, upon hearing Wolverine's voice, before he ran off towards the rest of his friends. Pyro, Nightcrawler and Shadow Cat all ran towards Shadow Puppet, stopping when they saw Wolverine get knocked out of the air, by Apocalypse.

"Insolent whelp!" Apocalypse said, as he swatted Wolverine aside with ease. "The meteorite, boy!" Apocalypse demanded turning his attention back to Shadow Puppet.

"Don't let him get this!" Shadow Puppet yelled as he threw the meteorite as hard as he could towards the other X-Men.

"Fool!" Apocalypse said, as he stopped the meteorite and started to bring it back to him.

"Don't worry Isaac! I got this," Nightcrawler said as he, teleported himself to the meteorite and snatched it out of mid air and then teleported back to Shadow Cat and Pyro. "Here, Shadow Cat you take this and get it back to the Xavier Institute," he told Shadow cat as he handed the meteorite to her. "Pyro and I will try to hold back Apocalypse until Professor X and the others can get here," He said, turning back to face Apocalypse, alongside Pyro.

"You insolent fools!" Said Apocalypse angrily as the meteorite once again slipped from his grasp. "You're just delaying the inevitable. I will create the perfect world and if you're lucky you will all get to live as my slaves," he said, becoming more frustrated with every moment he didn't have the meteorite in his possession.

"Ok, I got it," Shadow cat said, as she took the meteorite from Nightcrawler, and phased through the road and went down into the sewers. Where she ran back the in the opposite direction... "Eww... You better be a damn good cook Isaac, I'm running around in the stinky sewers trying to save your butt," She thought, slightly annoyed that she was in the New York sewer system.

Magneto and Wolverine had now gotten back up, and seen each other from opposite sides of the road. Wolverine glared at Magneto, "MAGNETO! I shoulda known you woulda had something to do with this," he said angrily and unleashed his claws.

"We have bigger problems now Logan... Besides, we have a bigger problem to deal with right now," Magneto replied trying to calm Wolverine down, and focus his attention on Apocalypse.

Toad was still trying to crawl away; he was badly wounded after his fight with Wolverine. "Sorry boss..." he said, as he passed out from the pain.

Suddenly Apocalypse fired an energy blast between Shadow Puppet's location and where Nightcrawler and Pyro were. The blast created a rather large hole in the ground that opened up into the sewers. He then started to fly towards the hole. Shadow Puppet, Pyro and Nightcrawler stood around in shock for a moment upon seeing Apocalypse's power.

After hearing the huge explosion Shadow Cat climbed out of the sewers and phased through the man hole cover, as she exited the sewer. She turned around to see what was going on. She was already a further two hundred meters away from the action. She saw Apocalypse heading for the hole he had just created. "I hope the others will be ok," she thought as she turned and started running back to the Xavier Institute, with the meteorite.

Almost immediately after the explosion Magneto picked up the parked cars around the area, along with anything else metal he could find in the surrounding area and threw it at Apocalypse. Bombarding him with anything he could find in the surrounding area. As he was hit with cars and pieces of scrap metal, Apocalypse turned his attention to Magneto. Who had formed several pieces of scrap metal into sharpened metal spears, which he sent hurtling towards Apocalypse. "I never should have tried to make a deal with you Apocalypse," he said angrily.

"Fool! You mean you should never have tried to betray me!" Apocalypse replied, his voice echoing down the street. He saw the metal spikes coming towards him and changed the shape of his body on a molecular level, so that there were holes in his body that allowed the metal spears to pass through his body without causing him any physical harm. "You should have known that you can't defeat me, I am Apocalypse the almighty conqueror, and I am Invincible!" He said his voice booming with confidence as he spoke taunting Magneto and the others who were trying to stop him.

Apocalypse then made his arm into the shape of a heavy, highly advanced looking machine gun, and began to fire small bolts of energy. "Now it's time for you all to die," Apocalypse said. With that he moved his machine gun arm in a wide arc spraying energy bolts at everyone, causing small explosions on impact. Magneto created a magnetic energy field around himself to avoid the attack. Shadow Puppet melted into the shadows, Nightcrawler teleported himself and Pyro to safety.

Wolverine leapt at Apocalypse taking several energy blasts, causing him to growl in pain and anger, slowing him down. "We ain't so easy to defeat bub!" Wolverine yelled, giving Magneto a quick look and nodding towards Apocalypse, signalling that he wanted Magneto to give him a boost towards Apocalypse. Magneto immediately used his powers of magnetism to control the adamantium bones within Wolverine and give him a boost, sending him quickly towards Apocalypse. "And we'll do whatever it takes to take you down Apocalypse!" Wolverine yelled unleashing his claws and slamming his left fist into Apocalypse's shoulder, causing Apocalypse to scream in agony, as wolverine's adamantium claws stabbed through his armour and into his flesh. Wolverine then managed to sever the conductive tubing that pumped Apocalypse's body with healing nanites, with the claws on his right hand. This attack slowed down the rate at which Apocalypse could heal his wounds. "And you better bet yer ass we ain't goin' down without a fight bub," He yelled.

Hearing the confidence in Wolverine's voice and seeing the bravery of his and Magneto's actions rallied the other X-Men including Shadow Puppet. Meanwhile, Shadow Cat had turned around to see what was happening after she heard all the little explosions coming from the direction where the others were fighting against Apocalypse. Seeing that everyone was still okay, she breathed a sigh of relief and started running back to the X-Mansion again.

"Foolish mortals! There's no hope for you to defeat me," said Apocalypse, as he increased the size of his hand and arm, moments before grabbing Wolverine and crushing him slightly in his tight grip. Then Apocalypse threw Wolverine at the side of an abandoned apartment building with such force that his body smashed through the solid brick wall.

At the same time Magneto turned the metal spears, he had unsuccessfully used to attack Apocalypse with a short while ago, around. "You'll never achieve your goal Apocalypse!" Magneto said, as he bought them hurtling back towards Apocalypse. The three spears impaled Apocalypse from behind, causing him to cry out in pain. They pierced his armour and came out through his chest. Magneto decided to leave them embedded there, curving them around making them harder to pull out. "We will stop you!" Magneto yelled, as he prepared for both Apocalypse's retaliation and to attack again.

Then Pyro flicked on his lighter, and quickly grew the small flame into a dragon of fire. That he sent flying at Apocalypse's back, engulfing him in flames. Heating the metal spikes in his body almost to melting point burning him internally. "Even you can't take us all on at once mate!" Pyro yelled, as he continued to burn Apocalypse with his fire dragon.

"Ja that's right Apocalypse, all of us together will stop you!" Nightcrawler yelled seconds before he teleported to Apocalypse ripping out his other nanite conductive tube, and slamming both his feet into the back of Apocalypse's head. After ripping out the other nanite tube Nightcrawler teleported back to safety. Without the nanite tubes pumping healing nanites to his body, Apocalypse ability to quickly recover from his wounds was taken away. While he could still heal his wounds, the process had been greatly slowed down.

Apocalypse laughed loudly, still confident in his ability to destroy his opponents, his laugh echoed out into the street. "You fools really think you can stop the mighty Apocalypse!" He shouted, balling his hands into fists, bringing them up in front of his face but still parallel to his shoulders. He also bent his knees bringing them closer to his chest, bending forward slightly, making himself more compact. "You dare to over estimate your own abilities and under estimate my power!?" He asked rhetorically, as he built up a large amount of energy within his body. "IMBECILES!" Shouted Apocalypse, extending his arms over his head while extending his legs outwards. "Be gone!" He yelled, expelling a large amount of destructive energy, sending it out in a bright green orb of light. The energy moved at the speed of light and exploded blowing away parts of the surrounding buildings and sending Magneto and the X-Men; Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Pyro flying off in different directions. Their bodies crashing through walls or bouncing down the road due to the concussive wave sent out by the blast.

Apocalypse then turned his attention to Shadow Cat who was still running away. She quickly looked over her shoulder to see what had happened after she heard yet another explosion. "Oh no... I hope the others are back by now," She thought. A shocked and frightened look appeared on her face as she saw her friends being blown away. She tuned back and ran for her life, driven faster by fear. She pulled her X-Men communication radio from her pocket and pressed a button, turning it on. "Help! Is anyone there? Apocalypse is here! Oh God, Please somebody answer me! The others are ... They're... I don't know if they're alive," Shadow Cat screamed down the communicator, almost in tears, her voice broken and afraid. She desperately hoped someone would answer her, as she knew she couldn't take Apocalypse on by herself.

While all this was going on Shadow Puppet stayed hidden in the shadows, by becoming the shadows he was unaffected by Apocalypse's latest attack. "Holy %$# what the hell is this guy?" He thought, as he watched from the shadows, still able to see what was going on. He noticed, Apocalypse start to shape shift parts of his body which was still badly damaged from Pyro's fire attack and still had the three metal spikes through from Magneto's attack.

"HA! Weak insolent fools," Apocalypse said, proud of himself for blowing them all away with the energy blast wave attack he had just used. Apocalypse then transformed his arms into jet fighter wings and his feet into rocket boosters. He flew as fast as he could towards Shadow Cat, knowing that she now held the second half of the meteorite. Unbeknownst to him Shadow Puppet had become part of the shadows on his body, along with the shadow his body cast on the ground as he flew. "Soon I will destroy this pathetic world and rebuild it in my image!" He said, aloud to himself as he flew after Shadow Cat.

"Calm down Kitty, what's this about Apocalypse?" Cyclops asked, responding to Shadow Cat's distress call.

Shadow Cat took a deep breath as she began to explain that, "He's after the meteorite, Isaac and Pyro, were going to give it to Magneto, but Apocalypse showed up, everybody tried to stop him but he... ... AAaaiieeaaAH!" She screamed as Apocalypse opened fire upon Shadow Cat with another energy blast the explosion cutting the radio call short.

While Shadow Cat was calling for help on the radio, Apocalypse transformed one of his arms into a cannon. He took aim at her and fired, sending a ball of energy hurtling towards her. Realising this Shadow Puppet brought himself part way out of Apocalypse's shadow. "KITTY LOOK OUT!" He yelled, in an attempt to warn Shadow Cat of the incoming attack.

Shadow Cat screamed in fear, as she only just managed to make herself become incorporeal, before the blast hit her. She turned to see Apocalypse flying towards her and Shadow Puppet coming up out of the shadow being cast on the ground by Apocalypse. "RUN I'LL HOLD HIM BACK!" Shadow Puppet yelled, as he wrapped shadows around Apocalypse, restraining him.

Meanwhile Cyclops quickly gathered Phoenix and Professor X and got ready to help Shadow Cat. "Shadow Cat is in trouble, Apocalypse is here, we gotta go help her and quick," He said. They all hurried out of the mansion and climbed into Cyclops's car. Cyclops quickly started the car, sped out of the drive and rushed to get to Shadow Cat's location before it was too late.

"Fools, will you never learn!?" Apocalypse said, angry that he still didn't have the meteorite. "You can't stop me," he continued, his patience wearing thin.

"You say that, but can you move?" Shadow Puppet asked confident that Apocalypse was trapped in the grip of his shadows. "Are you ok Kitty?" He asked as the smoke from Apocalypse's attack cleared and he saw her just standing there.

Shadow Cat turned to face Shadow Puppet after hearing his voice, and breathed a sigh of relief. "Y-yeah I'm fine," she replied.

"Then get back to the others, I'll keep him here," he said, asking her to get to safety. His voice was calm and confident so she did as she was told.

As Shadow Cat turned around and ran off again, Apocalypse struggled to move. "Do you really think a pathetic creature like you can hold me?" He growled, using all his strength to move his arm pointing it towards Shadow Puppet and charging another energy blast. "You whelp I'll end you!" He said, firing a blast of energy.

Shadow Puppet however was able to hold onto the shadow of the energy blast and stopped it in its tracks. "I bet you weren't expecting that," he said. Shadow Puppet then took control of the blast, using the shadow it created, and threw it back at Apocalypse. The blast slammed into him and exploded on impact creating a fiery cloud of smoke.

Apocalypse laughed as the smoke cleared, "You fool! Did you really think that my own attack would harm me?" he asked, he was still being restrained by Shadow Puppet however and he still struggled to break free.

As Shadow Cat ran, leaving Shadow Puppet to deal with apocalypse she saw Cyclops and the others racing towards her in their car. "Thank God they made it," she thought, slowing down and stopping. The car came screeching to a stop a few inches away from her.

Cyclops immediately got out of the car, along with Phoenix and Professor X; they were wearing their X-Men uniforms this time. Who all rallied around Shadow Cat to see if she was still alright. After finding that she was okay they turned their attention towards Apocalypse. "He really is here," Cyclops said a slight look of shock and concern on his face. "What are they doing?" He asked, after noticing that, it looked like Shadow Puppet was just standing there.

"Isaac trapped him with shadows somehow," Shadow Cat replied. Looking back to see that the two of them were still there, she breathed a sigh of relief knowing that Shadow Puppet was still ok. "Here Professor you take this," She said, as she handed the meteorite to Professor X.

"Thank you for taking care of it Kitty," Professor X said, taking the meteorite from her. "It seems our new friend Isaac has gotten himself into quite a lot of trouble already. I think even I underestimated his abilities to control the shadows. If he can use them to keep even the likes of Apocalypse at bay like that," He explained.

Apocalypse's rage grew as he continued to struggle trying to break free from Shadow Puppet's hold. His rage intensified as he was being held by a seemingly lesser life form. "YOU PATHETIC INSECT! I WILL CRUSH YOU BENEATH MY HEEL!" He screamed, his voice echoing down the street. He began to gather energy in the same way he had done earlier, when he blew away Magneto, Toad and the other X-Men. An orb of green light began to form around Apocalypse as he built energy for the attack.

"Come on! We gotta help Isaac!" Cyclops said, as he rushed towards Shadow Puppet and Apocalypse. Followed closely by Phoenix, Shadow Cat and Professor X stayed back, in case things got out of hand. Cyclops then unleashed a powerful optic blast towards Apocalypse, which hit the energy orb surrounding him and was unable to penetrate it.

Apocalypse noticed the attack and laughed menacingly. "Fools! You're all about to be wiped from existence," he said. Suddenly the energy ball that was surrounding him started to become dark, as Shadow Puppet began wrapping shadows around it.

"Let's see if this will work," Phoenix said, as she brought two of her fingers, from her right hand to her temple. She then focused on Apocalypse's mind and as soon as she could feel his thoughts unleashed a powerful telepathic force blast.

"GRRAAAAGGGGHHH!" Apocalypse cried out in agony as he felt the telepathic attack, causing him extreme mental pain. Meanwhile the energy orb continued to get darker, as Shadow Puppet himself became part of the shadows covering the orb in darkness. From within the ball of energy, Apocalypse began to curl up into the fatal position, due to the mental anguish caused by the powerful telepathic attacks from Phoenix. At the same time the ball of energy became more compact.

The ball of energy was now, a black ball of shadow, similar to a black hole no light escaped it, however unlike a black hole it did not suck everything into it like a giant space vacuum. "Wh-what are you, what's going on? How can such low forms of life defeat the mighty Apocalypse?" He questioned, as he started to feel that he might actually lose this battle, doubt creeping into his mind. This was of course Phoenix, projecting elements of doubt into his mind and continuing to blast his mind with powerful psychic attacks.

Pyro and Nightcrawler suddenly teleported to the scene, if in a puff of red smoke, they were both nursing injuries, from Apocalypse's last big attack. Their injuries would have been a lot worse if Nightcrawler hadn't teleported, them safely away from the full force of the explosion. They looked on in awe, when they arrived, staring at the large black orb floating in the sky. "What's happening now?" Nightcrawler asked, teleporting himself next to Professor X and Shadow Cat.

"I believe Isaac has contained Apocalypse inside that ball of shadows," Professor X explained, pointing towards the ball that was floating in the sky. "Jean Grey is attacking the mind of Apocalypse with her psychic powers," He said, finishing his explanation of the current situation.

"I see," Nightcrawler said looking towards the ball of shadows once again. "I didn't know he could do something like that," he thought, impressed with Shadow Puppet's abilities.

Soon after Pyro and Nightcrawler showed up, Wolverine came running to the scene where the others had gathered. "Where's Apocalypse!" He said angrily, his injuries from Apocalypse's last attack still healing. He noticed Jean Grey and Cyclops, "Jean? Where's the kid and Apo..." He started to say, but stopped as he looked up and saw the shadow ball in the sky.

The energy shadow orb started to become smaller, as Apocalypse curled up. "I control the shadows, In fact I am the shadows, I am darkness itself," said Shadow Puppet, as he closed the ball of energy and shadow in around Apocalypse.

"Arrogant fool! I am Apocalypse! I can not be stopped," replied Apocalypse, defiantly as he started to regain control of his mental state. "And if I must defeat darkness itself to achieve my goal of rebuilding this world, then so be it," he continued, his usual confidence and arrogance returning.

"You can not defeat darkness, for wherever there is light there'll be shadow and within the shadows there I'll always be," Shadow Puppet said. "I swear I'll protect this world from people like you, even if it cost's my life," He continued. "I should never have let Magneto convince me changing the world against its will was the right thing to do," He thought to himself, continuing to shrink the ball of shadows and energy around Apocalypse.

"He's becoming more resistant to my attacks," Jean Grey said, realising that Apocalypse was starting to regain control of his mental faculties.

Suddenly the ball of energy and shadows exploded into a ball of pure light, so bright it was like looking into the surface of the sun. The light from the explosion temporarily blinded everyone who was looking at the once dark ball of shadows. Of course everyone had their attention focused on the orb, eager to find out what would happen to Shadow Puppet and Apocalypse, so the were all suffering from temporary blindness.

As the light faded and their sight returned, they saw a figure fall out of the sky, to earth. "Isaac!" Shadow Cat cried out, starting to tear up, as she watched the figure fall to the ground. She ran towards him hoping that it was Shadow Puppet and that he was ok. Everyone started to move closer trying to make out the figure as he fell towards the ground.

Jean Grey used her telekinetic abilities to safely bring the unconscious body to the ground. Once everyone, regained their sight fully they realised that it wasn't Shadow Puppet who had fallen from the sky, but Apocalypse instead. However, even he wasn't his normal self; he was much weaker looking as if his very life force had somehow faded away. He was still alive, just that he had reverted back to his regular human form.

"Apocalypse!" Wolverine growled, unleashing his adamantium claws as he pinned Apocalypse's body to the ground, kneeling on his shoulders. He was about to stab them into his Apocalypse's face, when Professor X stopped him.

"No Logan, he's helpless now, there's no need to end his life," Professor X told Wolverine, before he could deliver the fatal blow.

"Argh! He's just gonna come back as strong as, probably even stronger than before again. How many more times we are gonna have to take him down?" Asked Wolverine angrily, pressing his claws to the neck of the still unconscious Apocalypse. "Why not just put him down here and now permanently?" He asked looking up at Professor X, hoping that the Professor would change his mind.

"As long as he is no longer a threat, he should be given the chance to live, and change his ways. How many chances have you had at redemption?" Professor X explained, as he talked Wolverine out of killing the now weakened Apocalypse. "And we will stop Apocalypse every time; he tries to wreak havoc around the world. Even if it's a hundred times, before he finally changes," He said, further reiterating his point of view.

"Bah! Fine," Wolverine replied, still not convinced it was the right thing but, trusting Professor X's judgement.

Then Professor X got in touch with S.H.I.E.L.D and called them to pick up Apocalypse, and take him aboard the 'Raft,' a special prison that houses some of the worlds more powerful super villains. After waiting a short while, several agents of S.H.I.E.L.D arrived and picked up the still unconscious Apocalypse. Loaded him into their special S.H.I.E.L.D Flying car, and carted him away, locking him up in the raft.

Then the X-Men gathered around standing under the street light, wondering what had happened to Shadow Puppet. "I can't sense Isaac's presence anywhere," said Professor X, as he tried to search for any indication that Shadow Puppet was still alive, by using his psychic detection abilities.

"Neither can I," said Jean Grey who was also trying to find Shadow Puppet with her own psychic abilities.

"You still owe me that dinner, you jerk!" Shadow Cat said, as she buried her face in her hands and started to cry.

The rest of the X-Men all, started to grieve for the loss of their new friend. They huddled together, under a street lamp and because they were still in shock, and both Professor X and Jean Grey had failed to sense any trace of Shadow Puppet, they assumed he was dead. They failed to notice something different in their shadows, something that shouldn't have been there. They didn't realise that there was an extra shadow that appeared to be standing along side them, in their huddle, because who really pays any attention to shadows anyway right?

66


End file.
